THE DARK SIDE OF BOSTON TOUR - STAMP ACT 1765

The stamp act....what is the exact definition?  According to Wikipedia it says:


The Stamp Act 1765 (short title Duties in American Colonies Act 1765; 5 George III, c. 12) was a direct tax imposed by the British Parliament specifically on the colonies of British America. The act required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced onstamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp.^[1][2] These printed materials were legal documents, magazines, newspapers and many other types of paper used throughout the colonies. Like previous taxes, the stamp tax had to be paid in valid British currency, not in colonial paper money.^[3] The purpose of the tax was to help pay for troops stationed in North America after the British victory in the Seven Years' War. The British government felt that the colonies were the primary beneficiaries of this military presence, and should pay at least a portion of the expense.

Thomas Hutchinson was governor of Massachusetts at that time and resided in Boston.  This was his home that he lived in..

I'll need to get a better picture.  The reason why Thomas Hutchinson is mentioned is because at first he was one of several people who warned London not to proceed with with this Stamp Act and it could not be good to tax the Americans.....because they could lose more than they gained.  Well of course it was passed and I guess that kind of made the residents of Boston REALLY mad.  There were many protests because Hutchinson was accused of treachery and betraying his country.  


The protests got so bad that his home was ransacked and his collection of materials on early Massachusetts history was destroyed.  His family was able to escape safely while all of this was going on.  And if I can remember correctly this lasted all night and family silver, furniture, and other things were stolen.  Talk about looting...huh?  Also between 1625-1725 Boston had the most riots in the country totaling 28 according to the tour guide.  Guess Bostonians complained alot....just saying.


So eventually Hutchinson privately supported calls to repeal this tax but did not want to publicly oppose this act because it would provide additional fuel against him for his opponents.


So let's see......people complained about taxes back then...and they complain about taxes now.  How little times have changed and I guess this is why some politicians have security guards for protection to avoid what happened to Thomas Hutchinson.  


Next topic....the influenza crisis 1918!


Well until next time....

THE DARK SIDE OF BOSTON TOUR - SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC 1721

So this weekend I was fortunate to join some friends on this walking tour through Boston.  The company that does this tour is called Boston By Foot and they do several walking tours where you learn about a lot of history in Boston.  If you want to check out their website it is www.bostonbyfoot.org and I think I will be doing more of these tours.  


I was going to do the entire tour in one blog but it is just too much information I had to take notes (yes I'm kind of a nerd) and I probably would lose your attention.  So I have decided to do 8 blogs about each of the topics and let me tell you some of them are very interesting...and all of my information may not be exact, I'm going off of what I wrote and memory so here we go:


So apparently in 1721 a small pox epidemic spread across Boston 5,889 Bostonians had it and 844 of them died from this illness.  This worried many people because it was spreading fast and even though houses were quarantined in hopes to isolate this virus but it wasn't working.  Reverend Cotton Mather who was collaborating with a Boston physician William Douglass and many other physicians in the area had discussed the practice of inoculation and it was such a controversy.  The reason why is because it was taking the smallpox virus from one person and introducing it to a healthy person.  Sounds kind of crazy doesn't it???  But the theory was that if a person survived then they would be immune to getting it again.  Mather had learned about this procedure from his slave named Onesimus who was from Africa and this was done to him as a child and they have been doing this for years there as well as several other areas in the world.  


So in June of 1721, Mather pleaded with many physicians in Boston and they all slowly but surely tried this procedure and it worked and people would have the virus for about a week and recover.  By February of 1722, Boston was totally free of smallpox.


So I guess we can say this procedure of inoculation was started so many years ago and this is why we have to get all of these shots as children.  I wonder where we would be if this was never tried?  That was the first stop on this tour and history was never my strongest subject because I always thought it was BOOOORRRRINGGG!!! But this kept my attention and I was ready to go onto the next stop.


Next up.....Governor Thomas Hutchinson and the Stamp Tax Act in 1765.


Well until next time....

PILGRIMS, THE ROCK AND THE BOAT!!!!

So this past weekend was pretty eventful a group of friends from church decided it would be nice to go to Plymouth for the afternoon.  A good idea it was indeed.  First we went to the Plimouth Plantation....and yes it is spelled right.  The reason why Plimouth is spelled this way is because they didn't have any rules with spelling so it was spelled the way it sounded.  Well those of you who know me know that history is not my strong point but I really enjoyed coming here and learning about the indians and pilgrims.  So I will kind of walk you through my day.


First we went by the Wampanoag Homesite...

Now the people who work here are real Wampanoag indians and here they are making a boat.  It can take the men up to 7 days to complete making a boat. What they do is carefully burn the inside of this log and scrape the burnt part away until it is to the thickness they desire.  Also this technique causes the sap to seep through the wood to the outside and it is a natural sealer to the boat.  It was really neat to watch this.

Then the next thing we saw was one of the larger houses

This house would hold up to 3 generations of a family here.  All of the men stayed on one side and the women and children on the other.  Hanging on the walls on the side with the men hung things which were life taking. (bows, arrows, hatchets, knives...etc)  On the side with the women were things hung that were life giving.  (baby carriers, cooking utensils, clothing...etc)

This house was also the "winter house" which was made of different material than the summer hut which would only hold one family.  Then you have the "outdoor kitchen" and some days women would spend their whole day here making sure there was enough food prepared for their families for the day.

Yes...that is a real turkey they are cooking and they will eat it later.


Next we headed to the Pilgrim village....walking there was like turning back the hands of time.  We saw Elder Brewster

He was the pastor at the church and one weird thing is back then you were not married in the church and the pastor was not allowed to marry you.  You got married by the governor.  

This was the meeting house...or church and downstairs they had Sunday sermons and upstairs was the fort with cannons where people would watch over the plantation to make sure enemies would not come through.

The plantation was very small and we saw many of the people that worked there and boy I had to give them credit because of the clothing they had to wear and it was sooooooo hot that day!  I was sweating bullets and I was wearing short sleeves and capri pants!

We saw animals and their gardens...

My question is all of the vegetables and herbs and stuff where does that stuff go???  Who uses it?  Anyhoo...it was a great day so we were finished and we had time to go see Plymouth Rock!!!!

Um.....this is like a large stone...not a ROCK!  I was expecting to see something WAAAAAAYYYYYY larger than what you see here.  And then on top of that they had to put a gate/building around this thing to prevent people from chipping away at it to take pieces.  

And the last thing we saw was the Mayflower....

Now I thought that this boat was alot bigger.  But I guess way back then....this was big enough.  


So it was a great outing with great people all in all it was a great day and I actually learned something!


Oh yeah...I forgot about the funniest thing......

The MOOflower!!!!  Ha ha ha!


Well until next time....

A DOG PARK WITH NO DOGS??????

Another thing I did this weekend was finally take Zoey to a dog park that is not far from where I live.  I get her all excited and we go as I open the gate Zoey runs in there and then stops.  I turn around and take a look and this is what I see....

Yup...you see....NO OTHER DOGS!!!  Are you kidding me?  It was probably around lunch time on a Saturday afternoon.  So poor Zoey is so disappointed and really didn't look like she was having any fun.  Well how could she with no  other dogs to play with.  So the gate opens and here comes another dog!  Of course Zoey gets excited and the other dog was not having it and walk away. They stayed for about 5 minutes.  So Zoey was a good sport and scopes out the place for another few minutes.

So I couldn't torture her anymore and I'm thinking maybe we should go and Zoey stops in the middle of the park and looks at me like this....

Okay this is the look that states "This blows!  It's hot there is nobody here and I want to go home!"  And that is what we did.  Hopefully the next time it won't be empty.


Well.....until next time!

CAMEO THEATERS - WEYMOUTH, MA

Sooooooo....this weekend I decided to take myself to the movies.  At first I wanted to go see Madagascar 3 or Ice Age 4.  And before you ask...no I wasn't going to bring a kid with me.  Why can't an adult go to a good funny movie without getting weird looks because they don't have a kid with them???  Anyhoo....I figure I would go to a low key theater not the fancy stadium seating, no frills, no fluff...just a good old fashioned theater with regular seats and such.

Well......I didn't know what I was getting myself into...if you are not wanting the frills and the fluff...this is the place to go!  

When you go to this theater don't expect much.  Now not that this place was bad...it's just REALLY REALLY REALLY OLD!!!!!  Very small, only two screens.  You walk into the lobby and look to the right and there is the women's bathroom.  Look to the left and there is the men's bathroom.  And then in that same general area is where you can get your popcorn, drinks and candy.  AND you buy your tickets at the same register.  So it's like a one stop shop and you can go back in time (without a time machine) and enjoy a cheap movie.  $5.00 matinee and $7.00 regular hours.  So it's not like going to a dollar movie theater in Dallas...but it is cheaper and you can still go see a movie.

I love popcorn...but their popcorn is REALLY salty almost too salty! But I went to see Moonrise Kingdom...the movie was okay.....let's just say that I could have waited until it came out on DVD.  But to each his own.

Well....until next time!!!!